Using classical tales is a great way to engage, inspire and motivate young people across the full ability range,
- Will Griffiths, Director of the Cambridge Schools Classics Project
Two of Britain’s leading storytellers, Daniel Morden and Hugh Lupton, have retold Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, for a modern audience. The new recordings have been piloted in primary and secondary schools across the full ability range, and are now being made available for all teachers to use.
Although they are between two and three thousand years old, the stories are still embedded in everyday language and popular culture. People who don’t know the original tales may still speak of a “Trojan Horse,” boast of a “Midas Touch” or worry about an “Achilles Heel.”
Available from www.classictales.co.uk, Daniel and Hugh’s high-quality recordings are accompanied by teachers’ notes and additional resources, planned by experienced teachers and tested in both KS2 and KS3 classrooms.
The website provides a complete resource for teachers who would like to use classical tales in teaching, and for teachers who are looking for examples of seminal world literature. The pilot phase found the stories to be particularly helpful for teaching reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
The new recordings are unique because Daniel and Hugh work in the original, oral tradition of storytelling. Their stories are told from memory, not read from a script. Working in the oral tradition preserves the power and excitement of the original tales, and brings the clarity and simplicity necessary to make the stories accessible to modern children.
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Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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